Genesis Framework Part 19

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Genesis Framework
GF 19 Genesis 2.4
January 3, 2016
Part 19

Genesis 2:4-7
4 This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,
5 before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground;
6 but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.
7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

Genesis 2:4
4 This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,

Genesis 2.4 is not, as is traditionally understood, a colophon, a summary finishing stroke to emblematically mark the end of the creation week.

co,-lo-phon- historically, a publisher's emblem or imprint, especially a statement at the end of a book, typically with a printer's emblem, giving information about its authorship and printing.

Image of an open book with the Publishers information highlighted by a red inverted triangle

Open book held open by a bronzed little hand stating the publishers information

Definition of Colophon in print

Genesis 2:4
4 This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,

Genesis 2.4 is not the heading for a second creation story per se, but a heading for the sequel to the story of the origin of the heavens and the earth and all their hosts- a sequel which continues up to the Flood.

sequel- a published, broadcast, or recorded work that continues the story or develops the theme of an earlier one, especially relating something that takes place after or as a result of an earlier event.

Genesis 2.4 must be understood as the superscription, not for an account of the origins of the heaven and the earth, but rather for an account of the subsequent “family history” extended from Adam and Eve, the heading for a sequel that extends for many, many centuries to the Flood.

Genesis 2:4-7
4 This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,

Although verse 4b refers to “in the day…”, this heading actually refers to the whole prediluvian era.

The use of the idiom, “in the day” in the Scriptures is typically to identify, introduce, and describe an entire era by referencing it to a big event, so that what happens later is said to happen “when” the founding event occurred.

This is exactly the kind of thing Paul was talking to the Greeks about on Mars Hill …

NKJ Acts 17:26
"And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,

Today there a multitudes of people inside and outside the Christian Church, who having learned from the Genesis account of the great Flood, that there will be a cataclysmic event in the future that will destroy the earth as we presently know it.

Those outside the Church have convinced themselves that if mankind is to live into the future, they must find a way to escape the planet itself and repopulate on the nearest planet similar to the earth.

They leave God out of the problem altogether; no judgment is considered, it will just be a “natural disaster.”

They have already moved beyond the rhetoric, "Where is the promise of His coming?” having believed in their own minds that if there actually was a God, He would have intervened to protect them by now.

Instead, they believe they are left only to trust in their own resources and efforts to save themselves.

On the other hand, many within the Church have also convinced themselves that any Christian living at the time of that Day will be raptured away and thereby escape the actual destruction process.

So, Genesis 2:4 is the heading for a survey of the entire prediluvian history, which views the whole age under the horizon of its great founding event, the creation, and so classifies that whole great era of time belonging to “in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.”

Genesis 2:4 also serves as a reminder to us that nothing comes about in God’s creation as a surprise to Him. He has made and established the times of events out of His sovereign prerogative, and predetermined pivotal events to setting them as markers of particularly characterized eras in all of history. God was not taken by surprise by the Fall. God was not speaking from frustration when He asked, “What have you done?” The Devil actually thought he could change the course of history and bring God down and take His place.

For example: While the Day of the Lord does refer to the time of Jesus’ 2nd advent as a specific event, it more distinctly refers to the arrival event which marks the entire era of Jesus’ judgment of the earth, whatsoever length of time it should take.

While we are at it, let’s develop a proper perspective for the entire history of mankind, the big view of it. This might be a good time to mention that in each instance in the Bible text that begins with the superscription formula, “these are the generations of…”, (and there are 10 such sections in Genesis alone), what follows the formula is always an account of the descendants of the person named; in this first instance (Genesis chapter 5), the person explicitly referred to is Adam.

The subsequent genealogy is developed through broadly historical narratives with the family in view, rather than a precise genealogical record book account.

Here’s the interesting part of each instance of genealogy; the ancestry intended is not pointing to the past, but to posterity with the future of the family history in view, looking forward rather than to the past, demonstrating a typical Hebrew perspective.

…no past tense.

In terms of comparing time-spans, it might surprise you to discover that by far the largest part of the many millennia of all human history appears to be covered in the brief record contained in roughly chapters 2 through 6, the span that trace the covenant line through Adam’s son Seth down to Noah and through the Deluge in the book of Genesis (or through chapter 8, if we include the Flood itself).

Then again, in terms of time-span, looking only at the time-span from the Flood to the present, considerably more than more than half of that history is dealt with in Genesis 9 through 11; that is, from Noah (after the Flood) through Abraham.

By comparison all the rest of the Bible from Genesis 12 (from the charge given to Abram) on; that is, from Abraham to Christ and the Apostles, is devoted to only about two thousand years.

So in order to think of time-spans of the Bible, we need to appreciate that the actual vastness of the time from Adam to Abraham, and that the earliest days are presented in an extremely condensed form.

Another reason there is a general unawareness of how large a proportion of man’s time on earth falls within the prediluvian history is because of a general misconception that the Adam-to-Noah genealogy in Genesis 5 and the Noah-to-Abraham genealogy in Genesis 11 are to be taken as unbroken lines of descent.

The effect of this results in a totally distorted miscalculation of the real span of history involved. Instead, these genealogies must be understood as a
selective listing of only the (presumably) more significant names, and that there are many lengthy gaps in them. Some inner-biblical and extra-biblical evidence give evidence to this as fact. For example, there is an epic tradition that in the days of Gilgamesh, several centuries before Abraham, the Flood was already viewed as an event of remote antiquity.

Covenant theologians take the position that the entire history of the kingdom of God can be understood in a covenant framework of two stages or phases; the original creational stage of the kingdom under Covenant of Works, and a redemptive phase as Covenant of Grace.

We will discuss this, but not today.

Peter also gives us a clear confirmation that all of man’s history on earth is divided into two parts, these separated and marked by the Flood event.

NKJ 2 Peter 3:1-7
1 Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder),
2 that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior,
3 knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts,
4 and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming?
For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation."
5 For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water,
6 by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.
7 But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

Peter tells us that a proper view of the prediluvian times are as a separate world history by themselves. Peter speaks of “the world that then was,” the original heavens and earth created by the Word of God, a world that perished in the judgment of the Flood.

Jesus also told us about this…

Matthew 24:37-39
37 "But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
38 "For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,
39 "and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.

Luke 17:26-27
26 "And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man:
27 "They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.

The special importance of the words of Peter and the Lord Jesus is that they present a complete world-history from creation to the Flood as a paradigm (framework) of another world that preceded this present world; so that, just as the world produced before the Flood had a total history and had developed its culture and witnessed the course of the great conflict of heaven and hell to a final eschaton climax, it made way for a new world; so also, we live in faith, in a new creation which is moving towards a destiny of divine judgment, to make way for a new creation world.

Many will be surprised on the Day of Judgment when they discover that it was just as the Word of God says; only the righteousness of Christ is able to save you.All men are sinners and no one can save himself. God is just, so He must punish sin; but He is also merciful, moreover gracious, and offers His Son as the perfect sacrifice in order to purchase a place for you in heaven, which He offers to you as the free gift of eternal life. As we continue to examine man’s earliest duties with regard to the covenant of works, although they can be categorically divided into two distinct types of classes; one in relationship with God, and the other in relationship with fellow man, all covenant stipulations are expressions of the will of the Lord. The law of the covenant is the law of man’s image-sonship.

Jesus is God Incarnate

In order to pay the debt of our sins, He came from Heaven, having been sent by the Father, where He lived a life of perfect obedience to the Father even unto the shameful death upon the cross in order to pay the debt of your sins.This gift must be received by faith, believing that Jesus’ perfect life and Cross Work was His complete and necessary Atonement for your sins, in your behalf.Faith is a gift that comes by the Power of God the Holy Spirit working in a person’s innermost being. The Holy Spirit has the authority and power to quicken your dead spirit, to make it come to life. If you have not done so before this moment, ask Jesus to forgive you your sins, tell Him you’ve stop trying to be your own savior, and ask Him to come into your life right now, and to give you eternal life. Then, in faith believing, thank Him for the gift that He is giving you, the one He paid for in full in your place, in Jesus’ name,AMEN